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THE MARTIAN REVIEW

I could not wait to write this review! Seriously. I am so fascinated by our universe. Space, planets, black holes, etc. I really wish I had the balls to become an astronaut. But I’m a baby so I’ll just read the books + watch the science channel for now.

Okay truth, I watched the movie first..BUT you know the book is going to be good when you loved the movie.

Let’s start off with Watney. HYSTERICAL character. I admire this man so much. Throughout his time stuck on Mars allllll alone he was faced with many highs and lows. He is a botanist and was able to design a system to grow potatoes on Mars. ON MARS. Mark Watney stayed positive + humorous. There are some people who aren’t even stranded on Mars with no communication, that can never see the humor in things. I will just show you one of the funnies..

Once Mark was able to communicate with NASA, they took their conversations to TV because everyone was following this story, globally. Here is what he said after being told this was public:

“Look! A pair of boobs! -> (.Y.) “

The ending of this book really struck a nerve with me. The whole time reading this book/watching the movie all I could think was, “Wow. All these people from around the world care so much about this ONE man’s survival, and yet we can’t seem to feel that compassion, kindness, + love on a regular basis towards each other.” Well, Mark Watney put it in words;

“I think about the sheer number of people who pulled together just to save my sorry ass, and I can barely comprehend it.” …… “The cost for my survival must have been hundreds of millions of dollars. All to save one dorky botanist. Why bother?” … “But really, they did it because every human being has a basic instinct to help each other out. It might not seem that way sometimes, but it’s true. If a hiker gets lost in the mountains, people will coordinate a search. If a train crashes, people will line up to give blood. If an earthquake levels a city, people all over the world will send emergency supplies. This is so fundamentally human that it’s found in every culture without exception. Yes, there are assholes who just don’t care, but they’re massively outnumbered by the people who do. And because of that, I had billions of people on my side.”

Thank you Andy Weir for creating a fictional story with fictional characters, that felt so very real to me.